The number of GOP chairmen empowered to issue subpoenas without holding a committee vote first is expected to double to 12 by the end of the month, GOP aides said. The change would enable committee chairmen to avoid facing Democratic questions or criticism in a public hearing before issuing subpoenas, which require administration officials to produce documents or testify on Capitol Hill.

House rules already give all committees the ability to issue subpoenas and each panel establishes its own procedures for doing so. If a committee doesn’t adopt any special rules, it must vote on whether to issue a subpoena. A simple majority is needed to approve one. In the last session of Congress, six panels had adopted rules allowing their chairman to issue a subpoena without holding a committee meeting first, according to GOP aides. Read More »

Some have pointed a finger at Rep. Jim Himes (D., Conn.), since he co-sponsored and pushed for a standalone bill with the identical language. But a spokesman for Mr. Himes said his boss doesn’t know how the provision got into the spending bill. “We found out about it when we saw the draft of the bill Tuesday night,” the spokesman said. Read More »

Want a glimpse of what the fight over Wall Street regulation will look like in 2015? Look no further than this week’s sharp words between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas). Read More »

I don’t agree with Jeb Hensarling on everything. (For example, I think his attack on the Export-Import Bank is a needless distraction.) But he is spot-on when it comes to immigration reform.

In The Wall Street Journal’s “Saturday Interview,” Rep. Hensarling said that he supports pro-growth immigration policies (my words, not his), which include a “vibrant guest-worker program” for low-skilled workers and more H-1B visas for high-tech workers. Read More »

A pair of senior lawmakers are proposing the first bipartisan legislation in the House this year to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and impose new requirements intended to protect taxpayers.

Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Gary Miller of California, the panel’s vice chairman, will propose Tuesdayextending the bank’s charter for five years, while bolstering its risk and fraud protections, according to a copy of the bill reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“This legislation contains a responsible set of reforms that we believe will strengthen the Export-Import Bank and lay the groundwork for a bipartisan agreement that extends the bank’s charter over the long term,” Ms. Waters said in a statement. Read More »

House Republicans are split over how to deal with an expiring law that provides government-backed insurance against terrorist attacks. There’s no clear pathway forward despite a 93-4 vote to reauthorize it in the Senate two weeks ago, and if Congress doesn’t act by Dec. 31, the law will expire.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was signed into law in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and stemmed in part from fears that private insurers wouldn’t backstop certain real-estate projects or potential targets like pipelines because of uncertainty over who would cover losses from a future terrorist attack. It has been reauthorized twice, in 2005 and 2007. Read More »

Republicans on Capitol Hill are demanding that a U.S. consumer-finance regulator produce a comprehensive list of actions that could be vulnerable to a legal challenge in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling on recess appointments last month.

The request on Tuesday by Sen. Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) comes after the Supreme Court in June invalidated President Barack Obama‘s appointment of three federal labor panel members during a Senate break. Read More »

House Republicans plan to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss how to approach the Export-Import Bank, which will no longer be able to guarantee new financing in October if lawmakers don’t reauthorize its charter. The meeting is being hosted by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), one of the agency’s most powerful critics. Republicans are split on how to deal with the 80-year-old Exim Bank.

The chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees the Export-Import Bank is attempting to stake out a middle ground in a firestorm over the bank’s fate with legislation that would renew its charter for five years and effectively block a requirement that coal-fired plants financed by the bank use carbon-capture technology.

The proposal from Joe Manchin, a centrist West Virginia Democrat, seeks to chart a compromise over the bank, whose charter expires in September. The Obama administration and most Democrats back reauthorizing the bank, which helps finance foreign purchases of U.S. exports and provides other support for U.S. companies. Some Republicans, including incoming House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), oppose the reauthorization, saying the bank serves as a form of corporate welfare and disrupts the free market. Read More »

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.